Farmer-turned-race technician gears up for Le Mans 24-hours

Warwickshire farmer and agricultural contractor Chris Gardner usually drives a Fendt tractor for customers across the Midlands and beyond, but for 75 days each year he has another job – a technician and driver assistant for a top motor-racing team.

Strange though it may seem, he got into the world of racing after getting his HGV licence in 2003.

He was doing general haulage at the time, until a team his father was working for as a timekeeper was looking for a driver to take their race truck to European circuits – and Chris bagged the job.

Before long he was headhunted by a competitor, working his way through numerous roles and teams until the 2008 global financial crisis bit, forcing motorsport teams to dive on to the brakes and cut back.

This, at least, presented Chris with an opportunity to return home to focus on farming. Five years later his phone rang.

Rebel call

“A chap I worked for previously phoned up out of the blue and said: ‘We’re racing in Japan would you like to come out?’

“I said, ‘I can‘t – but yes,’ and joined them just for the one race where they asked me to stay on. I’ve been with them ever since.”

His team is Rebellion Racing – a successful independent racing team from Switzerland and sister company of high-end watch manufacturer Rebellion Timepieces. Chris has worked for them for more than five years.

His second job is to ensure driver changes happen seamlessly and safely. There are three drivers on Chris’ car: Swiss racer Neel Jani, Germany’s Andre Lotterer and Bruno Senna – nephew of the legendary Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna.

Each take turns at the wheel throughout the 24-hours endurance event – ensuring the car spends the maximum time pounding around the track.

“It is up to me to make sure the driver gets out, the new driver gets in and their harnesses are tight. The confined cockpit and the vehicle crash structure mean it is difficult for the drivers to do their own belts. It’s up to me to make sure their belts are tight and properly locked in.”

Locked and loaded

All this is done under the intense pressure of race conditions and to make things a little more complicated, the memory sticks are on the opposite side of the car to the harness.

Le Mans winner ‘powered by tractor engine’

Farming’s connections with Le Mans stretch back to 1962, when a Morgan sports car won its class at the race.

This car was powered by a petrol engine derived and developed from the same power unit originally used by Standard Triumph in the Ferguson tractor.

In its standard guise, the Triumph TR3 engine developed 92bhp. It was converted into racing mode thanks to a complete strip down, with the crank rods, pistons, flywheel, and crank pulley rebalanced and the cylinder head reworked to develop 134bhp.

The Morgan – known as TOK258 from its registration plate – was driven across the finish line by Richard Shepherd-Barron, who lives near Woodbridge in Suffolk.

“The basic cylinder block was the same as the Ferguson,” says Richard. “If you stood them side by side, you would see it was the same.”